On September 10, 2025, a delegation led by Shoufu Li, General Manager and Deputy Party Secretary of China Railway Construction South Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as CRCC South Company), visited the School of Advanced Materials (SAM), Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School (hereinafter referred to as the School) to conduct research and hold a symposium on university–enterprise cooperation. Participants included Professor Ruqiang Zou, Dean of the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Peking University and Dean of the SAM, Lili Shi, Director of the Office of Scientific Research at the Shenzhen Graduate School, as well as Changwei Zheng and Liguo Jiang, Deputy General Managers of CRCC South Company, and Sihai Wang, Chief Engineer.
Discussion and Exchange
Professor Ruqiang Zou extended a warm welcome to the delegation led by Shoufu Li and provided an overview of the School’s development under the framework of “New Engineering.” He highlighted the School’s distinctive strengths in discipline building, talent cultivation, faculty development, scientific research, and technology transfer. Zou noted that the School has established clear research priorities in advanced carbon materials, new energy materials, artificial intelligence, and intelligent manufacturing, supported by multiple national and provincial key laboratories. These areas align closely with the industrial development needs of China Railway Construction, offering broad prospects for collaboration.
He emphasized that this exchange serves as an important opportunity to deepen university–enterprise cooperation and to advance the integration of industry, academia, and research. It enables the School to better understand the practical demands and technical challenges faced by large-scale infrastructure enterprises, thereby optimizing its research agenda. At the same time, it provides the company with effective access to frontier technologies and accelerates industrial upgrading. Zou expressed his hope that both sides would seize this opportunity to reach a strategic consensus, strengthen mutual empowerment between academic research and industrial development, jointly promote the transformation of scientific achievements, and work together to establish a model of university–enterprise cooperation.
Ruqiang Zou Speaking
Shoufu Li expressed his gratitude for the School’s warm reception and highly commended its achievements in scientific innovation and talent cultivation. He introduced the historical development of CRCC South Company as well as the business operations, reforms, and key investment directions of China Railway Construction South Investment Co., Ltd. Li noted that CRCC, formerly known as the Railway Corps, has played an important role in the liberation of New China, national defense, and socialist modernization. With extensive business coverage, the corporation possesses full-industry-chain advantages in investment, construction, and operation. Positioned in Shenzhen, CRCC South has deeply participated in numerous major engineering projects and is currently focusing on the development of new materials, new energy, and artificial intelligence to accelerate its transformation and upgrading. Li expressed the company’s hope to strengthen cooperation with the School in areas such as talent cultivation, joint research, industry collaboration, and technology transfer. He emphasized the importance of innovating university–enterprise collaboration models that integrate industry, academia, and research, with the goal of achieving complementary advantages and mutually beneficial outcomes.
Shoufu Li Speaking
Faculty representatives Hong Meng, Shuhong Jiao, Jiaxin Zheng, Zhongzhen Wu, and others each gave detailed presentations on their respective research areas, scientific achievements, and industrialization outcomes. Both sides engaged in in-depth discussions on the practical applications of relevant technologies. Lili Shi introduced the Shenzhen Graduate School’s forward-looking initiatives in building interdisciplinary research platforms, particularly its pioneering efforts in establishing and promoting the emerging discipline of AI for Science. She expressed the expectation of advancing cooperation with CRCC South in these priority areas and further expanding collaboration in fields such as smart cities and environmental energy, with the aim of fostering new models of university–enterprise cooperation.
During the visit, the CRCC South delegation also conducted on-site inspections of several key laboratories affiliated with the SAM, located in Nanshan Zhiyuan, the PKU Shenzhen Graduate School campus, and the PKU Science and Technology Park. The delegation visited major research facilities including the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Micro- and Nanomaterials, the Organic Optoelectronic Materials and Devices Laboratory, and the Shenzhen Houlang Laboratory. They gained a deeper understanding of the School’s platform construction, research progress, and technology transfer in frontier material fields, and engaged in on-site exchanges with faculty and students.
On-site Visit
Group Photo of Participants
This research and exchange activity laid a solid foundation for establishing a long-term and stable strategic partnership between the two sides. Both parties reached a consensus to further deepen cooperation, jointly serving national development strategies and the needs of regional industrial development.
